Beatles songs in chronological order

From time to time, I find myself organizing Beatles songs chronologically. This is a bit tricky, since the songs were released in three different formats — singles, EPs, and LPs — and released on different dates in the U.S.A. and the U.K. The singles and EPs appear on the Past Master collection, and the chronology isn’t obvious.

If you want an example of how convoluted the release dates can get, consider Magical Mystery Tour. It was released in the U.K. as a double EP on Dec. 8, 1967; but in fact it came out first (Nov. 27) in the U.S.A., as an LP. But four of the songs included on the U.S. LP (“All You Need Is Love / Baby You’re A Rich Man” and “Hello Goodbye / I Am The Walrus”) were released earlier still as singles in the U.K.; and those songs were not included in the U.K. EP.

In the U.K., most of the singles were not included on the LPs. I find it interesting to know that, for example, “We Can Work It Out / Day Tripper” belongs with Rubber Soul; and “Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane” with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Here, mostly for my own future reference, is a chronological list based on release date (rather than the alternative option, recording date).

Singles are in quotation marks; EPs, in italics; LPs, in bold.
Songs which were included on an LP are listed only if the single came out first.
Unless otherwise indicated, I use the British release dates. The U.S. release dates are used where (a) the single was released only in the U.S.A.; and (b) the single appeared before the same track appeared on an LP.

 Year  Single / EP / LP  Release Date 
1962 “Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You” Oct. 5
1963 “Please Please Me / Ask Me Why”
Please Please Me
“From Me To You / Thank You Girl”
“She Loves You / I’ll Get You”
With The Beatles
“I Want To Hold Your Hand / This Boy”
Jan. 11
Mar. 22
Apr. 12
Aug. 23
Nov. 22
Nov. 29
1964 “Can’t Buy Me Love / You Can’t Do That”
Long Tall Sally / I Call Your Name /
      Slow Down / Match Box

A Hard Day’s Night
“I Feel Fine / She’s A Woman”
Beatles For Sale
Mar. 20
July 10
 
July 10
Nov. 27
Dec. 4
1965 “Ticket To Ride / Yes It Is”
“Bad Boy”
“Help! / I’m Down”
Help!
“We Can Work It Out / Day Tripper”
Rubber Soul
Apr. 9
June
July 23
Aug. 6
Dec. 3
Dec. 3
1966 “Paperback Writer / Rain”
“Yellow Submarine / Eleanor Rigby”
Revolver
June 10
Aug. 5
Aug. 28
1967 “Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane”
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
“All You Need Is Love / Baby You’re A Rich Man”
“Hello Goodbye / I Am The Walrus”
Magical Mystery Tour
Feb. 13
June 1
July 7
Nov. 24
Nov. 27 (U.S.)
1968 “Lady Madonna / The Inner Light”
“Hey Jude / Revolution”
The Beatles (aka The White Album)
Mar. 15
Aug. 30
Nov. 22
1969 Yellow Submarine
“Get Back / Don’t Let Me Down”
“The Ballad of John and Yoko / Old Brown Shoe”
Abbey Road
Jan. 17
Apr. 11
May 3
Sept. 26
1970 “Let It Be / You Know My Name (Look Up The #)” 
“The Long and Winding Road / For You Blue”
Let It Be
Mar. 6
May 11 (U.S.)
May 18
Advertisement

One Comment (+add yours?)

  1. darrell scott
    Jan 19, 2012 @ 01:32:55

    if people are forbidden to persue happiness why should they pay taxes, serve in the military and if they can enjoy their constitutional rights to life, liberty and the persuit of happiness; then it their ight AND responsibility to abloish their government

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.